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Thunderwing · Transforumer Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 3393

For whatever reason, it seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like Season 3 is the weakest of the three seasons. It has its moments, but a lot of wasted potential.
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CyclonusArmada · Transforumer Joined: 17 Jan 2012 Posts: 2525

Season 3 Highlight: Depthcharge. Low Point: Inferno & Quick Strike
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Thunderwing · Transforumer Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 3393

FDrowned · Transforumer Joined: 18 Aug 2009 Posts: 4993

Which one was that (the name doesn't ring a bell)

Season 2 was top notch and whilst Season 3 started off good, it lost it's focus a bit as it went on
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CyclonusArmada · Transforumer Joined: 17 Jan 2012 Posts: 2525

It was one of the episodes with the *ugh* protohumans, The little girl one and no it wasn't good. Although 'The Low Road' and 'Call of The Wild' in Season one are a lot worse.
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Thunderwing · Transforumer Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 3393

CyclonusArmada · Transforumer Joined: 17 Jan 2012 Posts: 2525

Maybe its because of how much I loathe comic relief that light hearted episodes in any series really bug me.
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Cattleprod · Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 1:04 pm Post subject:

Go With The Flow is so egregious because it was created because the higher-ups demanded a more 'family friendly' episode. That's why it has those lessons about basic machines like pulleys and levers. Educational content.

It takes a whole lot more than one bad scene to make something the worst episode ever, the buddy cop stuff in the Low Road was great. And Terrorsaur's unintentional political commentary in Call of the Wild.
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CyclonusArmada · Transforumer Joined: 17 Jan 2012 Posts: 2525

I've always felt Season 3 should have been so very different. With the ending to The Agenda they had a chance to launch into an exciting alternate reality with a potentially whole new cast while still keeping such new additions as Depth Charge and Tigerhawk involved. Optimal Situation reeked of cop out.
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Thunderwing · Transforumer Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 3393

Verno · Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 9:37 pm Post subject:

Thunderwing · Transforumer Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 3393

Okay, I found it. This was a little analysis of BW Season 3 I wrote a ways back

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Beast Wars is mostly a sacred cow, but as some may know...I think the third season of BW is kinda weak as compared to the first two in terms of plot.

I've wanted to analyze what exactly I found weak about it for some time. For your consideration, here's a brief episode-by-episode analysis as to WHY I think the overall plotting of BW Season 3 is mostly weak. (And I'm not overlooking many, many strong bits in the season, just focusing on what I found weak).

-OPTIMAL SITUATION-
Not too shabby. A good season premiere. I remember being a bit disappointed though that the whole "Maximals being erased" thing was still "in-progress" and there wasn't going to be a sort of alternate dystopian future episode or something before stuff got set back right. The end of Season 2 really implied a sort of finality to Megatron's triumph, and when we come into Season 3, it almost seemed to me like they rewound the clock the few extra seconds needed for an eleventh hour "undo".

Minor nag...after being clearly vaporized at the end of last season, Inferno showing up looking merely singed was a little off-putting. At the very least, have Megs recover his spark or something and rebuild him as Scavenger. And I know he's a beloved character and all, but I don't see what would be so bad about leaving him dead. He didn't do much of anything for the rest of the season aside from the usual "Yes Royalty" and shoot at Maximals stuff. I understand why it was done; much easier to bring back an old CGI model than create a new one for a new character, but still...

Toy debut- Optimal Optimus

-DEEP METAL-
Good introduction to Depthcharge and nice to add another dimension to Rampage. Don't have much of an issue with this episode except that Depthcharge's solitary lone wolf status is teased here, then somewhat muted/underplayed for the rest of the season.

Toy debut- Depthcharge

-CHANGING OF THE GUARD-
The whole episode focuses on recovering Sentinel...only for Sentinel to be used ONCE more by the Predacons later in the season. A wee bit of a waste.

-CUTTING EDGE-
Tarantulas shows up working for Megatron...with no explanation. Sure, he teamed with him again when Ravage joined up in Agenda, but no one expected him to stay, especially when he was doing just fine on his own.

The Cyber Raptors never show up again, and only serve to tease Dinobot II's introduction. Another waste of a plot thread. You'd think Megs would want to keep some disposable grunts around.

Also, this episode starts the trend (as amusing as it is here) of Optimal Optimus getting his ass dropped right fast in a fight. Primal may not have Prime's spark in him anymore, but he never shied away from utilizing all the power at his disposal in a fight. So any attempt by the writers to make him less powerful comes across as weird.

-FERAL SCREAM 1-
Optimal Optimus gets his ass kicked again in a ludicrous sequence that kicks off with him and Megatron shooting at each other with no more than fifty feet between them and failing to hit for about ten seconds.

Dinobot II's debut is okay, but isn't given proper gravity on the Maximal side of things. "There's a new Dinobot, oh well."

The alien Transmetal II driver that Megatron suddenly has could have been an episode in itself in the obtaining...but we're just made to assume he picked it up any-old-where. The planet's littered with Vok artifacts anyhow, right?

Toy debut- Dinobot II

-FERAL SCREAM 2-
This episode is centered around promoting Cheetor 3.0, but it feels like it's treading water until the very end.

Near everyone suffers some brief retardation and can't make the connection between Cheetor's bizarre behavior and the "mysterious" mutated catlike creature running about.

Optimal Optimus gets dropped again.

Toy debut- Cheetor 3.0

-PROVING GROUNDS-
I have a fondness for this ep, as it characterizes Blackarachnia well and gives us a better introduction to Dinobot II than the previous two eps have. But this episode proves ENTIRELY REDUNDANT for reasons I will get into in a few episodes.

-GO WITH THE FLOW-
An insidious waste. A comedy episode near devoid of comedy. Dinobot II, shown to be a deadly opponent only last episode, is reduced to Waspinator/Quickstrike status in one bit. Megatron's plan is completely moronic as well, very shades of G1 Megs, actually. The worst episode of Beast Wars.

-CROSSING THE RUBICON-
Not too bad, but makes Proving Grounds completely redundant. Blackarachnia had resolved to remain herself and be happy with how she was at the end of that episode, but immediately seems to go back on that with her Transmetal II experiment. Kinda reeks of Hasbro interference. Everything else is okay, her "death" is touching, and Silverbolt's quest to avenge her is compelling.

Complete lack of explanation WHY the Transmetal driver resurrects and upgrades her. It's Hasb- errrrr, Vok magic. Move on.

And poor Rampage gets the tables turned on him. In his debut episode, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia jobbed to him to show how badass he was. This episode, he gets totally jobbed by TM2 Blackarachnia. She physically beats him up. COME ON.

Toy debut- Blackarachnia 2.0

-MASTER BLASTER-
Optimal Optimus is disabled again. Then beaten up later in the episode.

Megatron sends Dinobot II after Depthcharge, who isn't present at the base. This conveniently removes them from the plot and it never comes up again.

Megs becomes an apparent TM2 with no explanation. Shouldn't he have just become a more powerful "natural" Transmetal? But Transmetal IIs are the current toyline, soooo...

Toy debut- Megatron 3.0

-OTHER VICTORIES-
Several loose ends are tied up because the show is ending! Hurry! But honestly, I think this episode did an okay job about it overall.

After administering his prerequisite debut ass-kickage, Megatron 3.0 immediately receives some by Tigerhawk.

Optimal Optimus gets disabled again.

Toy debut- Tigerhawk

-NEMESIS 1-
Logic error...Depthcharge and Optimal Optimus are right next to a bomb that Megatron has left for them...but when it explodes, all it does is grievously injure Silverbolt, who was apparently standing much farther away and behind them.

Depthcharge/Rampage's rivalry concludes well enough. But dude, they haven't fought since Changing of the Guard, huh? But unfortunately there are more important things to worry about and their deaths are somewhat glossed over.

Tigerhawk, our newest character, is reduced to an exposition sounding board for Primal to explain the Nemesis.

-NEMESIS 2-
Lots of animation errors in this episode for the observant viewer...possibly the largest amount of visible animation errors in the entire series in this episode. Clearly done in a rush.

Optimal Optimus gets his ass thoroughly kicked throughout.

Tigerhawk dies. A variety of factors contributed to this- Hasbro's waffling on releasing the toy, no apparent plan for him to be in Beast Machines, a need to show the Nemesis as a serious threat, and Simon Furman writing this episode. (It's said that Furman's first question upon taking the Beast Wars assignment was "Who can I kill?") In whatever case, he dies well, if still too soon.

Poor Cheetor, Rattrap, Silverbolt, and Blackarachnia get virtually nothing to do.

Dinobot II's personality shift is poorly explained and understood to this day. Perhaps if we got "Dark Glass" it would have been better, but...nope.

Important stuff like the original Megatron's spark being returned and the obtaining of a Transwarp cell to get home is cut to get the show ended as fast as possible.

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ANYHOO, it's clear Season 3 had a lot more Hasbro interference than previous seasons, and that's probably why it suffered so much. It had probably the largest ratio of episode to "new toy debuts", and many standalone eps don't serve any purpose in the end.

It had a lot of good moments, and I may come back and record my favorite moments of Season 3 as well.

But for me, this was my least favorite season of Beast Wars.
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CyclonusArmada · Transforumer Joined: 17 Jan 2012 Posts: 2525

This was what I meant before. If they'd had the guts to make season 3 (or at least a three to five part story) set in the 'Decepticon Victory' future they could have actually utilized far more of the unaired toyline designs. There were some excellent Transmetals (Scavenger, TM Waspinator, Airazor & Terrorsaur etc) and even some TM2's such as Iguanus, Scourge, Ramulus and Cybershark that could have been the new cast and really built off of the strengths of Season 2.

Instead we got a middle of the road season and Japan got a horribly mutilated version of Season one. Rolling Eyes

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Verno · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 4:21 pm Post subject:

You're spot on. A lot of details in Season 3 were rushed over, poorly explained or simply not explained at all. This has left a lot of opportunity for future story-telling in this time frame from the loose ends that were left.

However, IDW have somewhat shot themselves in the foot if they were to one-day re-tackle BW, as they used every single non-show character in The Gatheing and The Ascending, except TM2 Cybershark, who was shown in his non-TM form instead.

Unless they do a reboot or make the events in a different universe to the previous comics, they're without recognised characters to use.
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